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HIGH GEAR/FEBRUARY 1978

BROADWAY HOOFERS ARRIVE

A legend arrived in Cleveland' on Monday February 6 when the International Company of "A CHORUS LINE" arrived, fresh from European and North American triumphs.

This glossy and elaborate praise of "gypsies," the chorus dancers who hoof a precarious living on the Broadway stage, is already the musical of a generation. It is "Hair," "Oklahoma," "My Fair Lady" of the 70's. One critic went so far as to call it the show of the century.

To no one's surprise, it is the hottest ticket in every town that it has played and even on Broadway it is the first show to never play to a single empty seat. The same lust for tickets can be found in Cleveland, Theatre Royale, Drury Lane London and in far-off Melbourne Australia.

M

What's all the fuss about? There have been hit musicals before. Those who watched the Tonys on television were stunned when the production marched off with 9. Later the show! won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and finally the prestigious Pulitzer Prize.

The show itself is rooted in show business tradition but breaks severly with some of the known hackneyed myths. There . are no elaborate sets or expensive costumes. The music is hardly humable but is written and structured for the book which was written by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante. The music with words by Edward Kleban was composed by Marvin Hamlisch whose awards are too numerous to mention here.

In addition the action is stark, with 24 dancers lined up on a rehearsal stage backed with mirrors auditioning for eight roles in the chorus. In the process they bare their lives and the psyche of the chorus line.

To the critics who raved about the play, and the audiences who flock to it, Michael Bennett offers up nothing less than a microism of America.

"What I tried to do was put

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people in a very American situation like the Miss America contest," said the show's creator, choreographer and director.

Bennett himself is a victor of the system he talks about. Born

FINALLY!

in Buffalo 33 years ago, he began as a gypsy himself before becoming Broadway's most promising and acclaimed choreographer director. ("Promises, Promises," "Coco,"

"Company," and "Follies.")

But two years ago he looked at his closetful of Tonys with frustration. "I think I'm an artist," he explained in an interview a few weeks back. "But ! found in the theatre were too many economic pressures. When you see something a cer-

tain way, and then can't afford to do it, it takes the fun out of doing a show. I'd lost my sense of novelty."

A couple of out-of-work gypsies revived Bennett. They

suggested that he start a dance company. "But ! really wanted to do was a show about dancers." He also wanted the truth so he worked with and asked them what they've gone through to become dancers. The

BETTE MILDEW-TO BE SURE!

The time appears to be ripe for a new chanteuse to blossom before the U.S. gay community. Bette Midler, as we formerly knew her, is dying, if not already dead. As evidence of this fact, I point to her most recent series of Cleveland "concerts" if one can call her act just that.

It seems that the once Divine Miss M is now seemingly the darling of the straight set ... who really don't quite know what to make of her. Believe me, Bette, before they grow to understand ... yet appreciate you, .someone will be speaking of you the way you spoke of Marlene Dietrich, et al., Saturday night.

... Keep them waiting! As pablum for her packed house(s), Bette offers her back-up trio, the Harlettes, whose singing indeed is third-rate when not led by Miss M. Their bumps and grinds and motions and winks are not enough to fulfill the need of a separate act. I feel that they would not make it on their own.

As an added insult, we are then asked to wait a lengthy intermission between acts. If the show were really worthwhile, I would not have minded.

So finally, Bette bounds down the ramp. Ahh! With the money that we paid for the tickets tonight, I say to myself, the least In my estimation, no she should do is show up in responsible performer should something not resembling so ask an audience to wait more much that she wore two years than an hour for a performance. ago. So onto the stage she goes. Yet, as with many others, one of I must admit that I was one of the chic things in live those giving her an opening entertainment is to do just that ovation, with memories of things

she had said or done or sung, and hope for the next hour or so of what she might do.

But she let me down! Her act seemed to be nearly the same as it was at Music Hall. She sang many of the same songs, told the same type of jokes, and carried on as usual. Now this is not to say that when one has a good thing going, one should eliminate it. But one can and must improve upon it or at least, vary it. With the apparent talent that Bette has, I was sincerely surprised that she had the same type of show as before. I really expected something new! Something different!, She has it within her to do it.

Perhaps, though, to tell us that she realizes where her mainstay of support originates, her finale was the emotional "I Shall Be Released." This song, along with "La Vie En Rose"

By Darrell Mansarde

were truly the highlights of the show.

I have not completely given up on Bette yet. All I've got to do is

discussion turned into a 25 hour marathon.

Suddenly all those things we had thought unique about ourselves turned out to be what everyone had gone through," Bennett concluded. "Dancers have got to be honest because you spend your life in front of a mirror. There's no way to kid yourself." Bennett came away from the session inspired. From this and other taped sessions, he and dancer Nicholas Dante fashioned the script for a documentary style play.

Enthusiastic about the idea, Joseph Papp, director of the New York Shakespeare Festival, gave them workshop space in his multi-theatre complex. Curiously, it was not until Bennett had worked and reworked the show that he made it a musical abruptly realizing that it was impossible to do a show about dancers without dancing. It was then that he lured Oscar winner Marvin Hamlisch from Hollywood to write the score.

"I loved rehearsals, I really didn't want the show to open," Bennett said. But when it did it took only one preview to make its gigantic success obvious.

It was the theatre people who first took Bennett's valentine to showbiz into their hearts. Actress Ruth Gordon said she would like to see it every week for the rest of her life. Sir Laurence Olivier now Lord Olivier took time out to catch a performance and in the finale took his place proudly in the center of the Chorus Line.

Bennett is still dazed by the show's reception. "It was going. to be my last show. I was going to New Zealand." His plans are now somewhat different. He has a three-picture deal with Universal and will produce, direct the eventual movie of "A CHORUS LINE." At the moment he is rehearsing other productions.

put her records on the stereo and she's right there with me -just the way I like her!

THE STARS OF WATERS' DESPERATE LIVING

CINEMA CSU MARCH 1-6